"This is a story of the interlocking spheres of science and art, technology, trade, travel, fashion, taste and ideas." - The Decorative Arts Society

"This is a multi-author volume, bringing an impressive range of expertise to the subject... Its excellent illustrations include furniture, ceramics, jewellery, dress, books and colour charts, as well as paintings, sculpture and photographs, and a brief object list provides a record of the exhibition." - The Decorative Arts Society Newsletter

Contrary to the monochrome vision of Queen Victoria’s mourning dresses and the coal-polluted streets of Charles Dickens’ London, Victorian Britain was, in fact, a period of new and vivid colours. The Industrial Revolution had transformed the Victorians’ perception of colour and, over the course of the second half of the 19th century, it became the key signifier of modern life. Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design charts the Victorians’ new attitudes to colour through a multi-disciplinary exploration of culture, technology, art and literature. The catalogue explores key ‘chromatic’ moments that inspired Victorian artists and writers to think anew about the materiality of colour. Rebelling against the bleakness of the industrial present, these figures learned from the sacred colours of the past, the sumptuous colours of the Middle East and Japan and looked forward towards the decadent colours that defined the end of the century. 

Les mer
An exploration of the changing status of colour in the Victorian period through painting, sculpture, decorative arts and fashion, published to accompany an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum.
Foreword 7 Acknowledgements 9 Preface 11 Elizabeth Prettejohn 1. glowing colour ‘The Age of Colour’: Victorian Britain (1837–1901) 17 Matthew Winterbottom and Charlotte Ribeyrol Colour in Ruskin’s Teachings 31 Colin Harrison Turner’s Paintings of Venice 37 Colin Harrison ‘The Gothic school of colour’: Reviving the Hues of the Middle Ages 43 Charlotte Ribeyrol Unweaving the Rainbow: Nature’s Colours in Art, 59 Fashion and Design Madeline Hewitson Pretty Plant Photographers or Pioneers? Anna Atkins and 71 Sarah Angelina Acland Lena Fritsch Object in Focus: Harry Emanuel, ‘Hummingbird Necklace’ (1865) 78 Madeline Hewitson 2. colour for all ‘The Triumph of Colour’: the Synthetic Colour Revolution 87 Matthew Winterbottom ‘More brilliant tints than fancy could conceive’ – Exhibiting 103 Colour: The 1862 International Exhibition Matthew Winterbottom Object in Focus: The Great Bookcase: Between Medieval and 116 Victorian Colour Tea Ghigo Surface Matters: Skin Colour, Race and Materiality 123 Madeline Hewitson ‘Wedding archaeology with art’: the Rediscovery of 131 Ancient Polychromy Charlotte Ribeyrol Journeys for Colour: Artist-Travellers and British Orientalism 143 Madeline Hewitson Object in Focus: Owen Jones, The History of Joseph and His 156 Brethren (1865) Madeline Hewitson ‘The gorgeous contributions of India’: Sourcing Colour 163 in the British Empire Matthew Winterbottom and Madeline Hewitson 3. colour for colour’s sake Colour for Colour’s Sake 173 Stefano Evangelista and Charlotte Ribeyrol Object in Focus: James McNeill Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and 192 Gold, St Mark’s Venice (1880) Madeline Hewitson Queer Colours 197 Stefano Evangelista Object in Focus: Fin-de-siècle Tanagras 204 Charlotte Ribeyrol Object in Focus: Japanese Board Game 212 Clare Pollard The Electric Fairy: Loïe Fuller (1862–1928) 217 Matthew Winterbottom Object List 222 Notes 228 Bibliography 232 Image Credits 238
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781910807576
Publisert
2023-08-31
Utgiver
Ashmolean Museum
Vekt
1152 gr
Høyde
280 mm
Bredde
220 mm
Dybde
20 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
238

Biografisk notat

Charlotte Ribeyrol is the Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project, Chromotope: the 19th century chromatic turn and an Associate Professor in 19th century British Literature at Sorbonne Université in Paris. She is also the co-curator of the exhibition Colour Revolution: Victorian Fashion, Art & Design. Matthew Winterbottom is Curator of Western Art Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is the co-curator of Colour Revolution: Victorian Fashion, Art & Design.